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While most software houses developing Windows-based IDEs were scrambling to make their products JDK 1.2 compliant (and not doing a particularly good job), they overlooked something really important to software developers -- an integrated API help engine. That's where David Flanagan's Java Power Reference: A Complete Searchable Resource on CD-ROM comes in.
The book Java Power Reference is short, consisting of two chapters that serve as a quick reference and high-level overview of Java 2. Alas, Chapter 1, "An Overview of the Java 2 Platform," is disappointing, as it contains only a brief paragraph or two on various modules and core packages (Input/Output, Networking, Security, Pluggable Look & Feel, and the like). Given that Flanagan previously wrote Java in a Nutshell for both the JDK 1.0.2 and the JDK 1.1, you'd expect to see more attention paid to details. For its part, Chapter 2 is essentially documentation for the accompanying CD-ROM that covers all Java 2 packages and classes. No software installation is needed for the CD-ROM. You simply insert it in your drive and you're ready to browse. To ensure the quickest access to it, you could copy the HTML files from the CD to your hard disk, if you have 75 MB of hard disk space to spare.
All the contents of the CD-ROM are HTML-based, so it's a matter of point-and-click to get information. The provided search tool proves to be very helpful. The view is systematically categorized according to functionality, with sections devoted to:
Clicking a particular link, such as
javax.swing.JComponent, displays a unique view of the
API. The synopsis displays Public Constructors, Public Constants,
Inner Classes, Public Class Methods, Event Registration Methods (by
event name), Property Accessor Methods (by property name), Public
Instance Methods, and Protected Instance methods and fields. The view
also displays the Class Hierarchy, Subclasses, JavaBeans Properties,
Inherited Properties, Inherited Events, Inherited Methods, Passed To,
Returned By, Uses and Used By (number of classes), and Type Of
(displays a list of fields of this type). The view is exhaustive, but
since it is divided into subtopics, browsing through the information
is rather easy. The one thing missing is a paragraph describing the
purpose and usage of the class, maybe even a code snippet.
Until commercially available IDEs truly integrate the Java 2 documentation and provide functionality similar to this product, Java Power Reference: A Complete Searchable Resource on CD-ROM is a quick reference tool that all Java programmers should have.
-- Laryn Fernandes